Pizza in New York City

Pizza is an important part of the culinary culture of New York City. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian immigrants adapted traditional Neapolitan pizza to the ovens available in New York, leading to New York–style pizza. Pizza of New York then, in turn, influenced pizza-making in Italy through the pizza effect. As of 2018, the city was home to between 800 and 3,000 pizzerias, serving a variety of styles and sometimes in stiff competition with each other. Coal ovens were popular early, gas ovens accompanied the popularity of restaurants selling pizza by the slice, and wood-fired ovens came with the popularity of the Neapolitan style. Slices range from inexpensive dollar slices to gourmet varieties. The price of a slice was once an economic indicator called the Pizza Principle. While the water supply is commonly believed to be responsible for the quality of pizza in the city, it is unlikely to make much of a difference.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Italian immigrants came together in an area of Manhattan later known as Little Italy. They brought with them a variety of culinary traditions, including Neapolitan pizza, a combination of flour, water, tomatoes, and cheese cooked in a domed, wood-fired oven. With no access to the kind of ovens needed to make that style, the immigrants rented time to use the bread ovens at local bakeries. These were much bigger and ran on coal, which burns at an even higher temperature than wood. As a result, the pizzas were much larger and one could feed multiple people, unlike the traditionally smaller Neapolitans. As gas ovens became more popular, pizza became easier to reheat without burning.

New York style is often cooked at a high temperature, sometimes using coal-fired ovens, to produce a crust that is both crisp and chewy. It can be considered a political gaffe for candidates to stray from this practice.

Sicilian pizza is made in a rectangular pan coated in olive oil. The dough is allowed to proof for longer than other pizza styles, rising to make a thick, fluffy crust similar to focaccia bread.